Abstract:
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Since the arrival of computers and statistical programming languages in the early 1970s, there has been tension between mathematical statistics and computing. John Tukey, perhaps optimistically, foresaw a `peaceful collision' between statistics and computing; however, in hindsight this was more of a missed opportunity as the reluctance to `moderate the romance with mathematics' and fully embrace computing has, arguably, lead to the development of many fields that run parallel or partially include statistics. This article will take a historical look at the interaction between statistics and computing while highlighting that a different path would have lead to a different field of modern statistics. Furthermore, the article will examine the current state of computing in statistics and make recommendations for the future.
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